Shock tactics helped me lose 4 stone

WHEN Brenda Colebourne attended her first meeting of a weight loss group, she was more than a little shocked to be told she looked like a hippopotamus and she needed to get off her fat backside and do something about it.

WHEN Brenda Colebourne attended her first meeting of a weight loss group, she was more than a little shocked to be told she looked like a hippopotamus and she needed to get off her fat backside and do something about it.

This may not be the usual approach to weight loss. But, then Solihull-based, motivator Steve Miller does go under the name of Life Bitch - and he does threaten to pull no punches.

And for Brenda, it was the kick-start she needed. "I was feeling down and depressed about my weight," she says.

"I was a chubby child and had never really been slim. Then a friend saw the advert in the Birmingham Mail for this weight loss session and suggested we go along. When I walked in and he told me I was a hippopotamus I was really shocked. But then he rang me the next day and said he knew he had been tough, but I needed to know it and needed to want to do something about it."

Steve's regime ditches calorie counting for encouragement.

"It is a three week programme of motivation and self hypnosis," says Brenda, a teaching assistant from Kings Heath. "It is all about building you up psychologically and having the confidence to do it.

"I have tried countless diets before but when you are only losing half a pound a week it is easy to just give up. But this time I knew it was worth keeping going as the results were there in front of me.

"I had affirmations all over the house telling me I could do it and Steve also suggested we hang a pair of jeans in the size we want to be on the wardrobe. And every time you saw them you knew that was what you were aiming for.

"Steve would call and text and really keep motivating you by encouraging you and telling you how well you were doing."

The regime aims to look at healthy eating and exercise rather than weighing every meal eaten.

"I just looked at food differently. I wanted to eat healthier food and smaller portions because that was getting me to where I wanted to go.

"And you have to do exercise so I took up walking for an hour a day. When I first started I didn't think I could do it as I was just panting but Steve encouraged me and now I love it. I walk everywhere I can."

And the results began to show. The pounds began dropping off during the three week programme and the weight loss continued until 57-year-old Brenda slimmed from 15st 5lb to 11st 5lb.

And Brenda feels she has rediscovered herself.

"It has totally changed my life, I owe Steve big time," she says.

"I was in a circle where I was depressed about my weight so would think what difference will an extra biscuit make so would eat that extra biscuit and then be depressed I had eaten it. It was heart-breaking.

"And I would go to buy clothes which looked lovely on the model in the shop but when I tried them on I would just cry they looked so horrible on me."

Steve was so impressed with Brenda's progress that he named her his role model student - another confidence boost.

"I just feel totally different about myself," she says.

"And it has changed my life in lots of other ways. I have the confidence now to make decisions on all aspects of my life."

* Brenda will join Steve Miller as he offers tips and signs copies of his book Get Off Your Arse and Lose Weight on Saturday June 21 at WH Smith in Solihull between 11am-12pm and WH Smith in Birmingham city centre between 2-3pm.

He is donating £1 to the British Heart Foundation for every copy sold. For more information see the www.lifebitch.com website.